


you and i must fight to survive

by nirvanics



Series: the knights of cydonia au (which actually has nothing to do with knights) [1]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-26
Updated: 2013-07-26
Packaged: 2017-12-21 09:56:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/898930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirvanics/pseuds/nirvanics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a house that doesn't quite feel like home, but his brother is in it, and Fíli believe that's as close as he can get. Only come September, he'll have to leave all of that (all of Kíli) behind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you and i must fight to survive

**Author's Note:**

> Imagine, for a moment, Kíli listening to Knights of Cydonia quietly, in the background. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heE__3yGRcg )

There was a room downstairs that Dís had designated the official "college" room, where everything could patiently wait to find its place in Fíli's new dorm; Fíli and Kíli had designated it the official "crap" room.

It was strange, he knew, looking around his and Kíli's room, with the wall nearest Kíli's bed painted a dark blue and the wall nearest Fíli's a muted brown (the deciding of the colours when they had first moved in had been hell until a compromise was reached). Despite what Dís kept saying about them having a specific day to phone and chat as she and Thorin did – which was most certainly not kept up with, Fíli was frankly aware – he somehow doubted that it would be strictly enforced, presumably by the inevitable ebb and flow of their likely-to-be-conflicting schedules.

Or, really, if he would be back at all. What was the point?

This place, this _house_ was not home. There were things that were in it that made it home, yes – his guitar with the pick tucked underneath the two thinnest strings, the smell of cookies when Dís didn't work, the way the rain looked on the kitchen window with dark clouds overhead – but the house was just a catalyst for those things. The closest Fíli had gotten was with Kíli, and he certainly couldn't come to university with him. It made something odd and foreign ache in his chest, and he thought maybe for a moment that this was an inkling of what Uncle Thorin had felt when his house had burnt down, in the vaguest degree possible.

He ran the pad of his thumb over the knockdown wall, painted over in the colours of raw umber and with a few old illustrations he couldn't quite scrub off with soap and water. He was well and truly leaving come the end of September, and the only things he had attaching him here were his mother and Kíli.

"When do you find out who your roommate is?" Kíli asked absentmindedly, voicing the topic of Fíli's silent thoughts and pausing in his erratic typing on his laptop. From where Fíli was lying on his bed, he could see a Muse sticker carefully placed on the top of his brother's computer.

"August, sometime," Fíli said, dropping his hand from the wall and letting it trail aimlessly to his bed. "I hope he's not a giant cock."

Kíli snickered at that, his tongue poking out a little as he violently backspaced. "You're gonna freak him out. What if he hates white dudes with dreadlocks?"

"Then he'll get over it real fast," Fíli replied, toying with the one of the ends of his parted hair, a small little grin tugging at a corner of his mouth.

"Or he'll just shave it all off while you're asleep."

"Christ, you're going to make someone a great roommate," Fíli said, and he immediately regretted it. It was too close to the topic he was trying to avoid, because it made the pit of his stomach all heavy; like an anchor gone wrong. Kíli seemed to notice it as well, and he stopped typing for a split second before hurriedly resuming.

But now the question had been left out in the open, dangling in between either brother if they so chose.

Kíli latched on first. "Yeah, I don't know if I'll be going," he said, and he gave a little shrug, focused far too intently on whatever was on his screen.

"What'll you do, then? After you finish high school?" Fíli knew. He could guess.

"Maybe stick around. Mum wants me to go to the community college, maybe look into something there. Try and find some work, probably."

"I thought something like that."

Kíli stopped and looked over to Fíli, his index and middle fingers of either hand still poised over the keyboard, just as Mrs. Reagal had always chastised him for in elementary typing class. But there was no malice or snide tone in Fíli's voice, just a smile with a touch of sadness at discussing the idea of the brothers moving apart.

There was a tight silence in the air now, not strictly speaking uncomfortable, but more like the inevitable nervous period in the waiting room before seeing the doctor or maybe the dentist. Kíli had to look away from Fíli, turning back to the computer but otherwise not moving, his gaze trained on the space between keyboard and screen. "When are you leaving?"

"Two months from today."

"Sixty-two days," Kíli said, and neither of them mentioned that they knew the other had been counting.

A pause. Then, "Yeah."

"At least we still got a bit before…" Kíli trailed off, making a rather vague motion with his shoulders.

"Yeah," Fíli said again, and his tongue felt like leather.

Sixty-two days seemed like too soon and too long all at the same time.

**Author's Note:**

> This is an odd thing, as I'm finding the majority of my writings are. It began (as most things do) with some personal musing that I'm finding odd to put into words, but figured putting it in the minds and mouths of other characters might help, and it's starting to grow a mind of its own, what with headcanons and ideas spouting from this. There's a couple fan-ideas bounced around in this, such as a common one that has Fili with dreads (bless).
> 
> I think, if people are interested, I could continue this in the form of some small one-shots, similar to this, based around Fili, Kili, and the harsh reality of being torn apart by trying to lead their own lives.
> 
> **Also, no, I don't know where they're from. My knowledge of the American Uni system is showing, and yet they call Dís "Mum". sighs.


End file.
